Osborne email seeking productivity ideas cost UK half a century of work

An email from George Osborne has lost the UK years in productivity, and cost millions.

Earlier his week Osborne asked public-sector workers for their ideas on how to cut departmental spending. He did something similar in 2010, which bought about the end of plastic National Insurance cards.

He tweeted on Monday: “I’ve emailed all public-sector workers to ask for their views on how we can continue to do more with less.”

However, the Evening Standard did a few calculations to see how much just reading the email would cost the country. The totals take into account only the reading of the email, not answering it, or taking time to think about answering it.